Season 2, Episode 4: ‘Watcher’
The primary half of the premiere season of “Picard” began off with a powerful premise. The latter half of the season was the place the storytelling started to get off observe. There have been clumsy plot choices that appeared designed to justify earlier ones, on the expense of creating sense on their very own.
After the fourth episode of the second season, I worry we is likely to be headed down the same path.
Principally, I had bother getting previous Younger Guinan.
Let’s posit some issues: Let’s settle for that Q in some way has modified the timeline in order that it is sensible that Guinan wouldn’t acknowledge Picard in 2024. (This regardless of Guinan having met Picard in one of the well-known “Trek” episodes, “Time’s Arrow,” already within the nineteenth century.) Or that that is a part of a distinct timeline, such because the one established by J.J. Abrams’s “Star Trek” in 2009.
I’m not fairly certain how this may occur, however timeline plots are all the time fuzzy. And one can droop disbelief if the storytelling is nice sufficient. There’s additionally Guinan’s historical past with Q, which works unaddressed right here.
The Younger Guinan that’s offered to Picard here’s a completely completely different Guinan than the one we’ve seen for many years in “The Subsequent Era,” to the purpose that it was a complete distraction. Why would Guinan, who instantly realized one thing was off within the basic episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” not notice one thing was amiss on this timeline? El-Aurians have a particular instinct, we’ve been instructed. They’re often known as “listeners” and Guinan needs to do none of that right here.
There’s additionally Younger Guinan’s defeatism. On this timeline, Guinan is pessimistic, bitter and unwilling to assist Picard till a lot later. Traditionally, that hasn’t been Guinan’s jam. She’s considerate, reserved — even mysterious.
Given Whoopi Goldberg’s schedule, the present was in all probability unlikely to get her to reprise the function past the one cameo she had just a few weeks in the past. However she has performed an iconic function in “Trek” lore — to utterly shift what has made the character so beloved over a number of many years felt rushed and unearned.
Proper from their first dialog, when Younger Guinan tells Picard, “I don’t know you. I don’t wish to know you,” it was clear that we weren’t coping with the identical pleasant bartender we’ve come to know. That she would threaten a well mannered, well-meaning Picard with a gun was much more shocking. She even calls Picard “outdated man,” which was an particularly unusual line, on condition that Guinan is considerably older by a whole bunch of years, one thing she references herself later within the episode.
Even attending to Younger Guinan is a journey in itself. Because the episode begins, we observe Seven and Raffi’s quest to search out Rios and encounter extra unmistakable political commentary. Deportations with out due course of. A authorities paperwork hostile to immigrants. (There’s a degree the place a health care provider references Immigrations and Customs Enforcement holding detainees longer than they need to, and Seven means that the federal government is deserving of a delicate comparability to the Borg.)
Picard goes with Jurati to go to Chateau Picard. We be taught that Picard’s ancestors, throughout World Battle II, hid from the Nazis within the tunnels beneath the residence, and that the residence itself was used as a base for the Nazis. It’s an attention-grabbing little bit of again story to introduce for Picard’s lineage and can hopefully get explored extra within the — ahem — future.
Right here Picard deduces that Jurati has a sudden specific fascination throughout the quantity 15. (Enjoyable reference right here: Jurati says, “Take a look at you, Dixon Hill,” a callback to a fictional detective that Picard used to play on the holodeck with Guinan.) Picard is probably going extra attuned to those indicators anyway, because of what he went by means of on the “Subsequent Era” episode, “Trigger and Impact,” when Knowledge realizes the repetition of the quantity three had relevance in stopping a disaster and bringing Kelsey Grammer into the “Trek” universe.
Essentially the most enjoyable reference of the episode — and probably the entire sequence — comes when Seven and Raffi are using the bus and a person with spiked hair is enjoying a boombox at an unreasonably loud quantity. Seven calls for he stops and the man apologizes — a distinct final result to the identical situation in “The Voyage Dwelling,” when Spock neck-pinches the same man.
Later, Seven and Raffi give “Trek” followers one of many first automotive chases within the historical past of the franchise. (Keep in mind the one with Picard driving in “Nemesis”? OK, by no means thoughts.) I do not know how Seven was in a position to drive a automotive so nicely, however then once more, Scotty as soon as was in a position to give you clear aluminum on the fly on a Eighties Macintosh.
The Borg Queen tries her greatest to control Jurati, which is sensible. Jurati, as sensible as she is, is the crew member who’s most vulnerable to thoughts video games. (Be aware that she murdered somebody within the first season, partially because of manipulation.) This appears to be a creating plotline this season: Will Jurati succumb to the temptations of the Borg, the place she doesn’t have to be emotionally in contact with herself? The place she will deal with being ruthlessly environment friendly?
Jurati’s coordinates lead Picard to Guinan In Title Solely, who’s upset by the privileged few holding a lot of the world’s sources and “killing the planet,” she says. She is on her technique to depart Earth till Picard talks her out of it.
When Guinan asks Picard his identify, he responds, “If I say extra, I danger compromising your path.”
“You may’ve considered that earlier than you began harassing me in my bar,” Guinan retorts. This can be a truthful level. Picard is aware of Guinan has (had?) particular talents. Why inform her some issues and never others? He’s compromising her path regardless, and he additionally did so in “Time’s Arrow.”
As has typically occurred in “Picard,” the plotting right here utterly disregards the character histories. Guinan tells Picard that as a dark-skinned being, she doesn’t have the posh of being affected person with humankind, one other unsubtle touch upon the world we dwell in. (It felt a bit pressured right here.)
Seven and Rafi are in a position to be transported out of the automotive to save lots of Rios. The poor police officer, who is likely to be carrying a physique cam, is shocked by her suspects disappearing out of skinny air. (The revelation that aliens can teleport will certainly trigger a stir on Earth.)
Lastly, after extra clamoring, Younger Guinan lastly agrees to take Picard to a face-to-face assembly with The Watcher, who finally ends up being Laris. Plot twist!
In the end, this episode left me feeling shortchanged. It was disappointing that Guinan’s total objective ended up being to arrange Picard with The Watcher, after a complete episode of her resisting Picard’s entreaties — particularly given her historical past with Picard. That bartender in 2024 may’ve been anybody.
It actually wasn’t Guinan.